Good Morning From Bump Day At IMS!

Good morning from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s a beautiful day right now, but there are reports of stormy weather later today. The radar looks good for the immediate area, so we’ll see.

There is a more relaxed atmosphere among the crowd and up here in the Media Center, but I’m sure the feeling is tense in certain garages – especially the Andretti Autosport stable where only one of five cars (John Andretti) is in the race. I know I’m repeating myself from yesterday, but the odds are good that one of their drivers will be having an unhappy evening. The local TV stations are all worried it will be Danica, but I’d say Conway is the most vulnerable.

The bizarre Month of May at Dragon has taken another odd turn. Driver Ho-Pin Tung will not become the first Chinese driver to make the field – not this year anyway. he suffered a concussion in his crash yesterday and has not been cleared to drive. The Scott Speed saga seems to have been resolved in one way or another, because veteran driver Patrick Carpentier is turning laps in Speed’s car. His best lap so far has been a 222.294. He will have to pick it up to have a shot. Scratch that – as I type, he has just spun and hit the wall in Turn One. A bad month just got worse for Jay Penske.

Anyway, it’s time to go do one of my favorite things at IMS – wander around. Back in a bit.